In Milton, Raising Bucks for New Books

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MILTON -- Many students in the Milton Area School District are excited to start book clubs.

The only problem? A lack of books to read in the middle school library.

One teacher is trying to change that by raising money to replace outdated books and furniture in the library.

Looking around the library at Milton Middle School, you'll notice a lot of open space, and of course, plenty of books. But some students say the school library is not a fun place.

"It's a little blank in here and the people who come in here to read, I think they would like more decoration," said seventh grader Camden Scoggins.

"We don't really use it for much, as much as I'd like to," added Taylor Snyder.

"The love of reading of our kids actually motivated all of us to come together as a team and say, 'What can we do for the central hub of our middle school?'" said reading specialist Tiffany Savidge.

After hearing complaints from the students that the library is outdated, Savidge started a "GoFundMe" page to renovate the library and buy new books.

For example, the bookshelves were bought in 1975 when there were ninth graders at the school. But the shelves are too high for many current sixth, seventh, and eighth graders to reach.

"We'd like to have that a little more accessible," said Savidge.

Some of the kids are interested in starting book clubs at the middle school, but that's hard to do when most of the books are from the '50s and '60s.

"'The Hunger Games', like most books people would read my age," said sixth grader Ashley Shamblen. "And I think we need more of an abundance of those kind of books because everybody's asking for them."

Savidge says the project would cost around $20,000 and she hopes to make it happen within the next two years.

"This is the heartbeat of our school. We want this to scream 'Panther pride, we love reading.'"